PFM Survey Finds Interest Outrunning Adoption

Fiserv Inc. said a national survey it conducted found interest in online personal finance management outrunning actual adoption of online PFM tools.

The company said its findings, released this week, also showed that consumers appear to be far more likely to use such tools when they are part of a transactional credit union or bank website.

Nearly 40% of the respondents in the 3,000-household survey conducted last winter said they thought PFM budgeting and other management tools would be useful to managing their own finances but only 15% said they had used such a service in the past 90 days, Fiserv said.

Sixty-eight percent of those who had used PFM services said they did so through online banking sites. And only 5% said they had used PFM services to track multiple accounts, typically through third-party aggregation, Fiserv said.

"To maximize adoption, banks and credit unions should promote clear advantages over other PFM service offerings, providing the ability to transact and highlighting bank site security," said Geoff Knapp, vice president, Online Banking and Consumer Insights, at Fiserv in Brookfield, Wis.